Researchers have long believed that Juana Maria spent much of her 18 years alone on the island living in and around a cave. Despite their best efforts to locate the cavity, the precise location remained a mystery until recently.

20 years of studying old maps and digging test holes finally paid off for archaeologist Steven Schwartz when field notes accompanying a 1879 survey map of the island identified the location of the cave. As it happened, the site was a previously investigated shallow depression beneath a rock overhang.

The cave, filled in after years of erosion, required a team of hard-working student volunteers to help remove about 40,000 buckets of sand to reveal a cavity measuring about 23 meters (75 feet) long and 3 meters (10 feet) high.

Although Schwartz is 90% sure it is the Lone Woman’s cave, further excavation is necessary to make a positive confirmation.